Dennis Nett / The Post-StandardVehicles line up on Bridge St in Solvay Saturday to unload scrap metal for cash at Ben Weitsman & Son. The company paid out more than $400,000 in one day.

All day Saturday along Solvay’s Bridge Street, vehicles queued up as if someone nearby was giving away money. Or food.

They were “giving” away both at Ben Weitsman & Son of Syracuse, a Solvay scrap yard, where hundreds waited hours to cash in their junk metal — old cars, parts of cars, lawnmowers, bicycles, fencing, batteries, radiators, bathtubs and anything else that had been sitting around.

People left with cash in their pockets and bellies full of pulled pork, cornbread and baked beans.

It was customer-appreciation day at Ben Weitsman, a division of Upstate Shredding of Owego, which buys scrap metal, reprocesses it and resells it.

Less than a year after purchasing the former Matlow Co., a scrap yard, Adam Weitsman put on what amounted to a scrap yard party. Few if any had ever seen the likes of it, including Peter Matlow, who sold his scrap business to Weitsman.

“We had a different business,” said Matlow. “We had an industrial business, but it went downhill with the demise of manufacturing in the area. This is a retail business. But you have to have lots of cash because you have to pay these guys immediately.”

Saturday, Weitsman paid out more than $400,000 to more than 1,200 customers. The yard was supposed to close at 2 p.m., but customers were still coming in at 5 p.m.

When he hired Dinosaur Bar-B-Que to cater the event, Weitsman planned for 200. The free food was served in a heated tent. An Onondaga County sheriff’s deputy hired by Weitsman directed traffic.

Two Geddes town counselors presented checks on Weitsman’s behalf to two local food pantries. St. Cecelia Roman Catholic Church, in Solvay, and The Vineyard Church, in Lakeland, each received $2,500. Four local radio stations broadcast from the scrap yard.

Once people unloaded their scrap, they stood in another line outside the Weitsman office waiting for payment.

Phones were ringing. Scale operators were talking on radios. Weitsman’s wife, Kim, clicked away on a calculator. Customers would give their receipt to Arlene Fontaine, an office manager, who pulled bills from a safe loaded with stacks of cash to pay each “scrapper.”

Debra Cross, of Jack’s Reef, had never been to a scrap yard before Saturday. She saw Weitsman’s newspaper ad, borrowed her daughter’s pickup truck and cleaned her barn of old motors, batteries and whatnot.

“The trash guys won’t take it,” she said. “It was a perfect way to get rid of it. And get paid for it.” She left with $102.

Jerry Casale, of Bernhards Bay, brought in 20 old radiators. He pocketed $297.

Ken Mosher, of Chittenango, brought in half-a-pickup truckload of aluminum engine blocks. He left with $100.

Tom Panek, who runs a towing service in Syracuse, brought in a 7,000-pound bulldozer he pulled out of Cicero swamp. It was worth $650.

“My mother, who’s 83, says this reminds her of World War II, turning scrap in for the war effort,” Panek said

Weitsman, who once ran a nightclub in Binghamton, said Saturday his scrap yard had the same energy as one of those busy nights of old, “without the liquor.”

“I’m trying to make people excited to come,” he said. “Our job, once they come here, is to keep them.”